The present invention relates to a machine for producing and dispensing liquid and semi-liquid consumer food products.
The present invention can be used in systems for the milk-dairy sector and, more generally, in food industry process systems.
The present invention relates in particular, although without limiting the scope of the inventive concept, to machines for producing and dispensing crushed-ice drinks, sorbets, ice creams, soft ice creams, cream, yogurt and the like and to machines for producing and preserving mixtures for ice cream, creams, sauces, soups and mixtures in general and the like.
As is known, machines of the above-mentioned type comprise a container for the basic product, consisting for example of liquid cream, mixtures of products for ice cream, syrups and the like, and a feed circuit along which there are devices, including refrigerating means, for the treatment and processing of the basic product and at the outfeed end of which there are dispensing devices, consisting of nozzles or taps designed to allow collection of the finished product (whipped cream, ice cream, crushed-ice drink, etc.).
Partly because the products they treat are highly perishable, such machines are subject to frequent checks and maintenance work to guarantee that perfect hygienic conditions are maintained along the entire feed circuit.
In particular, the main problem of the above-mentioned machines for professional use is linked to the presence of milk-based mixtures and the consequent need to clean and sanitize the machines so as to prevent the proliferation of microbes.
At present, a preventive maintenance procedure is performed at predetermined intervals, from daily to twice-weekly depending on the features of the machines. For example, machines without integrated heat treatment devices must be sanitized at the latest every seventy two hours, whilst for automatic pasteurizing machines the interval is every two weeks.
With regard to this, European patent application EP1716760, by the same Applicant, relates to a machine for producing and dispensing liquid and semi-liquid consumer food products equipped with a washing device, used to introduce, in alternate steps, into the feed and treatment circuit a flow of fluid in the liquid state or steam, to allow circuit washing and sanitizing. A central processing unit controls and regulates the various washing and sanitizing steps.
Irrespective of whether or not the machine must be disassembled to carry out the cleaning or has integrated and automatic sanitizing devices, all of the operations performed are preventive and cannot guarantee total product sanitariness.
Events which are out of the ordinary that can occur during machine operation, or even during manual cleaning, expose parts of the machine to contamination by microbes and subsequent contamination of the product being processed.
Although there are methods for estimating the cell mass of a bacterial population, said methods require laboratory analyses, high costs, very lengthy periods of time and are applied, for example in the dairy sector, only for carrying out spot checks.
Moreover, since preventive maintenance procedures are carried out without any preliminary analysis, it is possible that they are performed when not really necessary, consequently wasting time and money.